Now, just judging from the sea of campaign signs around the city for a host of candidates, that conversation has become full-throated.

Of course, campaign signs have festooned major intersections, fences, business locations and front yards since the first primary elections in the spring.

But it just seems like there are more of them now, just two days before Tuesday's general election.

I don't pay so much attention to the outburst of candidate signs posted at major intersections. I figure the candidates and their workers put those there.

But I am interested in who in my neighborhood puts up a candidate sign.

In an age when everybody walks around immersed in whatever is on their cell phone screens and candidates can seemingly reach every voter digitally, the lowly campaign sign — big print on a big board — still apparently has a place.

Maybe yes and maybe no. Political science research brought to my attention by Dr. David Smith at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi says that based on experiments in four different campaigns in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, signs have the potential to raise a candidate's share of the vote, but it depends.

Some signs in the study, "The Effects of Lawn Signs on Vote Outcomes," used only the candidate's name, others had a negative message and others included a political party. Taken all together, the effect is, at best, minimal, the researchers found.

My personal take is that campaign signs are somewhat like newspaper endorsements. The bigger the race, the more partisan the contest, the less influence the endorsement, like the sign, is likely to have. That's because the big races generate plenty of news coverage and public awareness and thus the voter reaches a conclusion without much aid from endorsements or campaign signs.

But I believe that endorsements and campaign signs do influence voters on those candidates running for more obscure offices and for candidates with less name recognition.

And in those races where partisanship is everything, only the party matters. That's how we wound up with a Republican Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, who is under indictment.

I think it's a rather bold step for a homeowner to stick a campaign sign in their front yard. That person is saying, "Here's who I am supporting."

As other researchers have found, often the people who install a sign in their yards are active politically and are quite comfortable with showing pride of where they stand.

Yet we know that politics, along with religion, are taboo subjects for casual conversation. We're normally reduced to "How about those Cowboys?" or "Is it hot enough for you?" in our small talk. Please don't bring up politics, God or sex, or any combination thereof.

But that's not the person who puts up a sign. Sticking that sign is a form of political participation, just as good as or maybe better than giving a small donation, or working in a campaign office.

Signs, some believe, are sometimes taken as a cue that a candidate's campaign is well funded and organized simply because of the number of signs evident. That was my take from all the signs for Barbara Canales, the Democratic candidate for Nueces County judge. In the sign war between Canales and Mike Pusley, the former county commissioner and Republican candidate, I put her ahead on points.

The campaign yard sign is an encouragement, I believe, to others who would not be so bold about their own preferences.

I have a colleague who apparently lives in a neighborhood where conservatives prevail. When she saw a "Beto" yard sign pop up, she thought, "I'm not alone."

It may be that the campaign sign does more for the person who puts up the sign in their own yard than it does for the candidate. There's no ambivalence once you put up the sign. And your neighbors know who you are for. If someone who is known, or thought of, as a supporter of conservative causes, or liberal causes, puts up a sign for a candidate on the opposite side of the fence, then we have an interesting conversation going.

If nothing else, the sea of signs should tell you that the big election is nearly upon us. Please vote on Tuesday.

Nick Jimenez has worked as a reporter, city editor and editorial page editor for more than 40 years in Corpus Christi. He is currently the editorial page editor emeritus for the Caller-Times. His commentary column appears on Sundays.